Winner Take All
by Essie Aster
Summary: Post Endless Waltz. Things are quiet Preventers is running things go boom fighting. Yeah, I suck at summaries, that's what editors are for. We get to deal with an uprising on Mars and all the fun that goes with that.


Title: Winner Take All

Author: Essie Aster

Category: Gundam Wing

Genre: Drama?

Rating: PG-13ish

A/N: Since I know someone will inevitably comment on this, no this is 1)not a mary-sue, 2)not a romance, and 3)not a self-insertion. I'm experimenting and this happened to be a good medium to play in. I can't say as I know exactly where I'm going. This chapter just kinda came out on it's own. I'll be blending songs by Brian Adams (guess the movie, you get a gold star) in the background and with some of the character dialogue. I've never attempted narrating music before, so I don't know how that will come out, but I'm also hoping to blend a nice chunk of action in there as well. That said, read on.

Chapter 1

_You can't take me. I'm free..._

The crash of a slamming door jolted Sonomi awake. Her pounding heart matched pace with approaching footsteps as she wiped the cold sweat off her brow. Sitting up straight she blinked a few times before looking around to assure herself of her location.

The small, plainly decorated room glowed a pale flashing blue, the only light coming from the flat panel monitor in front of her. 0403. She had fallen asleep at her computer, again. Rubbing the fog out of her eyes, Sonomi Kutsuwada fumbled for her glasses and flicked the screen back to life.

"What are we up to this morning?" Sonomi asked the computer, picking up her headset and logging on. With a few keystrokes she flipped through a handful of menus, checking her messages and the status on all of the Preventer outposts and satellites.

"Good morning, Sonomi," a female voice chimed over the headset.

"Morning, Sally. All systems green, as usual," Sonomi replied in a still sleepy voice.

"You logged out early last night. Did you get any rest?" The Preventer commander inquired.

"Not really," Sonomi answered honestly, looking forlornly at an empty glass on her desk.

"You fell asleep at your computer again, didn't you?" On her end Sally smiled.

"Sorry," came the reply Sally had come to expect from the young computer tech.

"Why don't you go out for some breakfast," Sally suggested. "We're handling surveillance from this end. Go ahead and take a break."

"Nah, I have some upgrades I want to install on 247-9. I finished the program last night."

"I thought the Mars satellites were all functioning optimally. What's wrong now?" Sally asked, an edge of stressed irritation lacing her voice.

Toying with the empty glass, Sonomi replied off-hand, "There's nothing wrong with them. I wrote a program to increase the strength of the infrared feed. I want to test it on one of the satellites we don't use as much, just in case there's a problem."

"What, do you want to count Martian nose hairs with it?" Sally laughed.

"Something like that."

"Good luck with that. I'll talk to you later.

"Yes ma'am." Pushing a button on the corner of her keypad, Sonomi froze the screen and removed her headset. As she stood she briefly stretched her arms and back before opening the door.

The sun had not risen yet, but the sky was glowing with that still sleepy haze that haunts the earth's early mornings. The curtains in the small common room were never closed the previous night, so the pre-dawn glow and illumination from the safety lights outside provided enough light for mild visibility, enough for Sonomi to at least see the shadow of objects, if not the objects themselves.

In times of war this place would be called a safe house, a small one level shack on the very outskirts of residential northern Beijing, the tight clump of houses nearby none the wiser as to the goings on in side of the house. The group who lived there, Sonomi and three others of the Preventer Corps, each had their own small room and shared a washroom, common room, and kitchen. The power they used for their equipment, mostly satellite relay, surveillance, and security was outsourced through anywhere from four to seven power and cable locations through out China, making the groups activities virtually untraceable to the still active Chinese government or any other faction trying to root out the Preventer's support network. The difference here was that this was not a time of war, and so the small house was merely an outpost, essential, but one of many similar scattered in different regions over the earth. Those who lived in them, like Sonomi, were civilians employed by the Preventer Corps, independent of any government, to create and maintain a secure infrastructure in preparation for war time.

Local Preventer operatives came and went on occasion, as many of the outposts had a less militaristic atmosphere, though some, like this particular one, ran under a heightened security. Only high ranking officials even knew of their existence and location, and only a few of those knew how to gain entry. Sure, there were glitches in the system, but even the system's designer, one of the techs residing at the outpost, was unable to successfully break in during a simulated test of the system. In this case, perhaps that was a fault in itself, but regardless, the house was secure enough for the people relying on its safety and anonymity to have no concern when someone entered.

Therefore, though a slamming entry at four in the morning was unusual and had startled Sonomi awake, she entered the kitchen without concern of who it was who had entered. With little thought, she made her way around the kitchen, preparing the coffee pot and turning it on, rummaging through the frig for something to eat, and overall making a general raucous.

In the process of pulling out and nearly dropping a sealed glass pot, Sonomi knocked over several jars of sauces, letting the pot crash to the floor as she tried to prevent the fragile jars from shattering against each other or falling from the shelf. She cringed. At this rate she would be waking everyone in the house.

"Is it necessary for you to make so much noise?" A flat familiar voice inquired from the common room.

"Sorry," Sonomi apologized quietly. 'Great, he shows up and what do I do? I try to break everything in the damn frig. Genius,' she thought to herself as she tried to quietly fix the problem she had caused, her attempts at silence only succeeding in making everything louder. In the end she returned everything to its place on the shelves and settled on simple, and quiet, bread and butter. By 4:30 the coffee was finished and Sonomi left the kitchen with her breakfast.

"Do you want some coffee?" she offered, more under hospitable obligation since she knew the answer. Granted, she could not see the person she had annoyed, but the voice had come from somewhere in this room.

There was a moment's pause before the young man gave an irritated "no" behind her.

Sonomi jumped a little, spilling some of the hot liquid on her hand and hissing at the burn. She made a move for the couch when the voice behind her grunted, "Do you mind?"

With a mental sigh, Sonomi bowed her head in defeat and replied quietly. "Sorry. I'll leave you alone." Resigning herself to her room, she shuffled off quickly, trying not to spill more coffee on herself. Once in her room she turned on a small desk lamp, wishing all the while she ate that she had a window in her room through which to watch the sunrise. As soon as she had finished her bread, however, she successfully distracted herself by logging back on to her computer.

"Let's give this a try," she mumbled to herself, not noticing the message light flashing in the corner of the monitor. Bringing Mars satellite designation 247 online she replaced her headset and stretched her legs against the wall. She had just started entering the program launch codes when a reminder alarm chirped through her earpiece, notifying her of a missed message on high priority.

"Play audio message," she told the computer, continuing to input the code.

"Sonomi," Sally Po's voice welcomed the young woman again, "I forgot to tell you, Wufei should be headed your way sometime this morning."

"I noticed, thanks for telling me," Sonomi sighed.

"Keep an eye out for him if you can. See if you can get one of the guys to take him to the Military Museum on the west side. He said he needs to see something there, and I don't want him going alone. There's no telling what he'll do."

"Crank the curators to death?" Sonomi suggested to the recording.

"Thanks kiddo. Water out."

"It's not that I hate my job sometimes," Sonomi mused, focusing again on her program. "It's just that right now I don't really like it." She sighed. By the time she had finished editing the satellite's program and running a quick test of the image feed two hours had passed.

"Well, someone should be up by now..."

In the other room Liu Sheng was startled out of bed by a high pitched whine from his computer. "I'm awake!" he mumbled, stumbling onto the floor and slapping blindly at his keyboard.

"You know, if you'd actually update your system occasionally I wouldn't be able to do this so easily," Sonomi's too cheery voice and face passed through his computer.

Sheng groaned and flopped into his chair. "But I do so love seeing your pretty little face every morning."

"I'm sure you do." Sonomi rolled her eyes. "Zero-five's here. I need you to take him to the Military Museum this morning."

"I'd love to spend the day babysitting, but I got a beat to run downtown. You know, alternative income, kinda like your little marching band you got going."

Sonomi groaned. "What's everyone else doing?"

"They left yesterday, babe. Some work up north, or down south, or somewhere here abouts. Did they forget to say goodbye?"

"You can't be serious."

"Sorry, but I am. Hey, thanks for the wakeup call. I've got to be downtown in half an hour." Sheng moved to cut the connection between their computers.

"Can't you take him with you?" Sonomi begged, giving her best girly pout.

Sheng laughed. "I would if I could, but I'm not going that direction. Have fun."

Sonomi growled as the image on her screen disappeared. "I can't win. I never win." Planting her face on the edge of the keyboard she shook her head into its surface. "I don't want to go to the Military Museum..."

Regardless of what Sonomi wanted, just a little after seven she turned off her computer and pulled her jacket out of her closet. Taking a deep breath she grabbed her keys off of the edge of her desk before opening the door.

'He hasn't moved an inch,' she thought, the early sunlight softly illuminating the cramped common room. She stood in the short hallway for a moment, putting her jacket on, before heading toward the door. Slipping her shoes on she turned around on the doormat and looked at the young man seated cross legged in one of the chairs.

"I'm assuming you wanted to get an early start," Sonomi announced, her voice too loud in her own ears. When she received no reply she relaxed her stance and sighed slightly. "Sir."

Chang Wufei opened his eyes and cast an annoyed gaze at the girl in the doorway.

"Sally said you needed to go to the museum for something..." Sonomi prompted.

"It doesn't open until 9," Wufei clipped back after a pause, closing his eyes again.

"Look, if you want to sleep you can lay down in one of the guys' rooms. They're all gone. But if we leave now we'll get there just before it opens." Again, there was no reply. Frustrated and impatient Sonomi turned back around and kicked off her shoes, bending over to rearrange them neatly on the mat before heading back toward her room.

"We'll leave in half an hour," Wufei declared as she past him. Sonomi stopped in her tracks for a moment, gritting her teeth before continuing on.

Closing the door behind her, she pulled off her jacket and tossed it on her bed. She stood for a moment staring at the dark room before rummaging through a small pile of clothes for a fresh set and a clean towel. "It's my luck I end up living with three men," she muttered, at last giving up the search and grabbing multiple hand towels she had hidden away in her closet. Bursting out of the room in a half frenzy, Sonomi paused and looked at the back of Wufei's head.

"I'm going to take a shower," she informed him, not that she thought he would care. "I'll be out in twenty minutes." No reply.

Instead of her usual brisk shower Sonomi took the quiet as an opportunity to relax in the water, coming out fifteen minutes later refreshed and ready to tackle the day ahead of her. Freshly dressed she spared a few moments to add some of her plain rope jewelry into the ensemble and pulled the front of her hair back into pigtails.

When she left the washroom she heard and ignored Wufei mention that she had gone over twenty minutes. Darting quickly into her room, Sonomi grabbed a light bandana to cover her head and donned her jacket again, her keys jingling in the pocket. As she entered the common room she glanced at her watch and took her last few minutes to down a glass of water before stepping into her shoes at the doorstep. She turned around just as Wufei was rising, not expecting but almost hoping for points for punctuality. If she received any she could not tell.

Outside the day was picking up as the urban middle class departed their homes, their children off to any number of the schools and universities, and the parents off to work in their offices, schools, or more likely one of the many industrial plants scattered through out the city, most of which they would have to pass on their way to the museum. The road was straight enough, and the city had put forward efforts to widen the streets, but the traffic would still be terrible. It took more than ten minutes to drive the mere two miles out onto the main road.

The first time he had come to this city had been during the war, and then he had only visited briefly. While it is easier to hide a single person among the masses, a giant mobile suit is hard to miss. Barring that, while the city had made efforts to rebuild and restore its residential areas instead of focusing solely on maintaining the antique monuments, the further into the city one traveled, the more crowded and dirty it became. And this stop and go traffic was almost nauseating.

Wufei rolled down the window on his side and leaned his arm on the edge, watching the mass of automobiles, bicycles, and pedestrians all moving in the same direction. Content with the already loud clamour of traffic, Wufei was not at all pleased when Sonomi started humming to herself.

"Is that necessary?" he clipped, keeping his eyes focused on the road ahead.

"I could turn on real music if you'd prefer," Sonomi answered, knowing that was not Wufei's intent.

"I'm inclined to think our definitions of 'real' would be different."

Grinning inwardly, and knowing she would regret the action, Sonomi pushed the play button on her car's dashboard. Nearly instantly Wufei stopped the recording.

"They're different. I would prefer the quiet," he said, settling back into his seat.

"Welcome to Beijing rush hour. There's no such thing as quiet," she perked.

"If you would stop talking, we would be one step closer."

Sonomi sighed, contenting herself with letting lyrics play through her mind. It took almost two hours, longer than she had hoped, before they arrived at the Military Museum.

"I have to go find parking. Do you want me to meet you back here at a certain time? Sir!" Sonomi yelled as Wufei wordlessly exited the car and vanished into the crowd.

"Wonderful," Sonomi sighed, pulling away from the curb and driving towards a public parking lot.

During the middle of the week, there were not a great many people visiting the old museum. It was one of the few historical treasures open to the paying public, and after handing the security guard at the front his admission, Wufei lost little time in separating himself from its few patrons. With a brief glance at a clock, he headed up the stairs. He had the next thirty minutes to spend looking around, and he spent the first ten admiring some of the older relics the museum housed. In the process he located the hall leading to the curator's office. At five minutes to ten he jumped the rope blocking the passage and made his way down the corridor behind a wall of displays.

Rupert Walters, the son of a British missionary who had spent his early years playing on the rough streets of inner Beijing, was now second only to the owner of the historic museum. The wealthy British scholar, however, had ties to the still existing crime lords, ties Wufei intended to exploit.

"Hey, you!" a security guard at the end of the hall exclaimed, catching site of the young man. "You can't be back here."

"I have an appointment with Mr. Walters," Wufei replied calmly, extending his arms out at his sides to show he meant no violence.

The guard started toward Wufei, reaching threateningly toward a tonfa strapped to his belt. "I have to ask you to wait outside, sir," he said, still advancing, but his tone dropping to a politer level.

Wufei stopped, allowing the guard to continue his advance. The guard was on edge as it was, and soon stopped himself, gripping his tonfa and watching the intruder warily.

"I don't like to be kept waiting." Wufei's foot slid back slightly into a ready fighter's stance and a face off started between him and the guard.

"Mr. Chang," an older man's voice greeted behind the guard. The guard relaxed his stance and turned to bow to the curator. "Please, Mr. Chang, come into my office."

A/N: Forgive my pathetic attempt at Chinese names. I'm a Japanese major, it's completely different. I am trying to keep the layout at least fairly accurate, though I'm sure a modern map really wouldn't look the same, but it's better than nothing.


End file.
